An acceptance and two quilts done

Eighteen Moons was accepted into the Deep spaces show. The second piece I had entered "Amoeba Nebula" was not accepted so I'll have to find somewhere else to enter that one.



I finished quilting both of the quilts made from the blocks I was given, here they are side by side.



I'm really quite pleased with how they turned out, especially after almost six years of trying to figure out what to do with them.

Color!

The napkins and place mats that I dyed.

Another top done

I finished the quilt top made from the second group of gift blocks. A couple of the blocks didn't fit in so they are pieced into the backing. I've got both quilts layered and ready to quilt. I'll probably do some very simple quilting, stitch in the ditch most likely.



I've also dyed the one set of napkins and place mats - very bright intense colors. Here they are in the dye, they're in the dryer now. The fabric really sucked up the dye so I've got some very bright linens now.



This morning my favorite nursery had an herb seminar, quite informative and fun. Of course I came home with several new herbs and a pot to put them in. So I've spent most of the afternoon planting and playing outside in the garden, I'm so happy it's finally gotten warm enough to do it.

Tessellation update

Kay, the author of the tessellation tutorial , commented yesterday about finding the whole tutorial on her blog by going over to the side and clicking on the Tessellation link. Not only can you see the whole step by step directions, you can also see students work. She has done a great job explaining it clearly.

I happen to know that my learning method is very visual, I look at pictures and then try to figure things out for myself. So when I saw the picture of tessellation's that looked like leaves(I love leaves) I just jumped in. Now that I've gone back thru Kay's instructions I'm going to have to make a new shape and do another. Thank you Kay.

Tessellation's and more blocks

While blog hopping yesterday I came across a tutorial on tessellation and gave it a try. I'm not great at reading and following directions, but I did look at the pictures and remembered enough to figure it out. You can go here if you'd like to give it a try. This is what I ended up with.



I also got out the remainder of the blocks I was given in 2005 and am trying to figure out how to get them to work together.



This piece below will be the back of the darker color set from yesterdays post. I had some of the little four patch blocks and some odd strips leftover, just enough to add to the backing fabric to make it wide enough.



Below is the last of the blocks, it got setting triangles added to it and hangs in my studio. It's a piece of a vintage linen that has an L on it. My friend Gayle dyed it and added beads to it. She collects and uses vintage linens all the time, you can see some on her blog.



I like to collect vintage linens also, sometimes I dye them but usually I just collect them. Recently I went to a local estate sale with $20 in my pocket and came home with this pile.



Most have never been used, many still have the labels on them. There are several tablecloths, hand towels and napkins. My favorite is a complete set of eight place mats and napkins that have never been used. I'm planning on dying them in a rainbow of colors and using them.

Two weeks have slipped by

Time sure does slip away. I had a delightful gift for Mothers day - my daughter bought tickets for Don and I to fly to Washington to spend Mothers day with them and my oldest son. We left here early Friday and returned on Sunday afternoon, we did our actual celebratory dinner on Saturday night. Wonderful Indian food. I was also given a 2 yard piece of mudcloth that my daughter had purchased in Tunisia last December.



When we moved here from Reno five years ago, I was given a large collection of quilt blocks from the members of the quilt guild I belonged to. The blocks were all different; different sizes, colors and patterns. I had asked for blocks of any size in red, gold, purple plus some black and white. I discovered that there are many interpretations of that - I was no where near specific enough. My plan had been to use them in a quilt for one of three twin beds in a spare bedroom, that didn't happen. I did use several of them to make pillows for a day bed. I dug the rest of those blocks out recently, divided them into two groups - light background and dark background. The twelve dark background ones are now a quilt top. The finished size is 45 x 60, a good size to snuggle in on a cold evening.


The blocks ranged in size from 6" to 12", so I made lots of four patches with borders around them to add to the original twelve blocks. I turned each of the blocks into a 15"sq with the addition of the blocks I made. I'm quite happy with the way it came out. Can you pick out the original twelve blocks?
The following picture is of the daybed with the pillows made from some of the blocks. There's a trundle bed underneath, if you look close on the bottom left a part of it's quilt is sticking out.



This is the other quilt in that room.


and the yard sale rocker that has a little quiltlet to cover it's strange color.


Now I have a pile of blocks with both white and muslin backgrounds- I'm thinking of doing a similar process to put them together.